Official State Insects (insects, butterflies, bugs)

This page offers an all inclusive list of insect symbols regardless of the specific designation of each state. You'll see that some of the insects on the list were not designated as state insects but as state butterflies and even state bugs.

The Insect categories option below offers lists by specific official designation. The Insects specifically list shows only those insects that were officially designated as official insects. The butterflies specifically list shows only those that were designated as official butterflies. The Bugs specifically list shows only those that were designated as official bugs.

Official insects, butterflies, and bugs listed by adoption year. (List by state or year)

What "insect" or "butterfly" holds top honors as the most popular among the 50 states? If you guessed that it was California's dogface butterfly you would be wrong. If you found that it was the Honeybee, you would be right. Seventeen states have adopted the Honeybee as their official state insect. Can you guess why?

A distant second, the monarch butterfly makes a strong showing with seven states designating this beautiful insect as either an official state "insect" or an official state "butterfly."

Full-color photos. "Sure to attract browsers and students researching assignments, Insect explores the anatomy, behavior, and ecology of those creatures, with a heavy emphasis on popular species. Each double-page spread consists of concise, yet lively and readable text and numerous excellent-quality captioned photos, drawings, and diagrams." --School Library Journal

Imagine beetles ejecting defensive sprays as hot as boiling water; female moths holding their mates for ransom; caterpillars disguising themselves as flowers by fastening petals to their bodies; termites emitting a viscous glue to rally fellow soldiers--and you will have entered an insect world once beyond imagining, a world observed and described down to its tiniest astonishing detail by Thomas Eisner. The story of a lifetime of such minute explorations, For Love of Insects celebrates the small creatures that have emerged triumphant on the planet, the beneficiaries of extraordinary evolutionary inventiveness and unparalleled reproductive capacity.

Meticulously researched and illustrated with color photographs, Insects is a landmark reference book that is ideal for any naturalist or entomologist. To enhance exact identification of insects, the photographs in this encyclopedic reference were taken in the field -- and are not pinned specimens.

Insects enables readers to identify most insects quickly and accurately. The more than 50 pages of picture keys lead to the appropriate chapter and specific photos to confirm identification. The keys are surprisingly comprehensive and easy for non-specialists to use.

Garden Insects of North America is the most comprehensive and user-friendly guide to the common insects and mites affecting yard and garden plants in North America. In a manner no previous book has come close to achieving, through full-color photos and concise, clear, scientifically accurate text, it describes the vast majority of species associated with shade trees and shrubs, turfgrass, flowers and ornamental plants, vegetables, and fruits--1,420 of them, including crickets, katydids, fruit flies, mealybugs, moths, maggots, borers, aphids, ants, bees, and many, many more.